System and Method for Real-Time Media Object-Specific Communications

• US 20090182810A1
• Filed: 01/16/2008
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Oath Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Joseph, Higgins, Christopher William, Davis, Marc
• Application Number:
  US12/015,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20090182810A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A system and method to facilitate word-of-mouth advertising and sales support associated with displayed media objects on distributed networks is described. The system provides one or more advocates to a network user accessing advertising of a brand, product, or service. One or more of the advocates may be socially related to the user. User interactions with the advocates are facilitated through a real-time communication network, follow-on commercial activity is tracked, and the value of word-of-mouth advocacy is captured and distributed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request to identify a group of advocates associated with a media object,

wherein said request includes one or more attributes of a consumer, a consumption target, and the object'"'"'s context;

accessing a data store of advocates;

forming a subset of advocates in the data store of advocates related to the consumer, the consumption target, and the marketing context; and

facilitating interaction with said subset of advocates in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating interaction with said subset of advocates in response to the request further comprises providing said subset of advocates further instrumented such that one consumer action will open a communication between the user and one of the advocates in the subset.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein forming a subset of advocates in the data store of advocates related to the consumer, the consumption target, and the marketing context further comprises:

determining, for each advocate, a measure of social connection to the consumer,

determining, for each advocate, a measure of expected marketing benefit relative to the consumption target,

combining, for each advocate, the measures of social connection and expected marketing benefit into a social marketing benefit score,

sorting the social marketing benefit scores to identify the highest scoring advocates, and

grouping the highest scoring advocates to form said subset.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing a datastore of advocates further comprises transmitting a request to a host system for identification of available advocates.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the combining of the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score comprises multiplying the measure of marketing value by the measure of social connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the consumption target is further determined as one or more of a screen display theme, one or more consistently promoted media objects on the screen display, or one or more dynamically promoted media objects on the screen display.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a request to identify a group of advocates related to a consumption target, a consumer, and the consumption target context;

accessing a data store of advocates;

forming a subset of best advocates in the data store of available advocates;

providing identification of said subset of advocates;

monitoring and facilitating communications with advocates in said subset of advocates;

replacing unavailable advocates in said subset of advocates when required; and

accounting for commercial activity in relation to the group of advocates.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the forming a subset of best advocates further comprises:

accessing a datastore of advocates;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of social connection to the consumer;

combining, for each available advocate, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;

sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and

identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advocates as the subset of best advocates.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein monitoring and facilitating communications comprises initiating a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, a streaming audio/video conference, or an e-mail and logging a record of each communication session.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein replacing unavailable advocates in said group of advocates when required further comprises

periodically servicing a request from a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advocates;

identifying one or more unavailable advocates in the set of current advocates;

determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advocates; and

determining a replacement advocate for each unavailable advocate with similar attributes.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying a group of advocates further comprises maintaining a presence server system operative to:

monitor a log-in process to detect the online presence of a advocate;

add advocates whose online presence is detected to a list of available advocates;

monitor activity of the available advocates to detect a log-out of a advocate or a failure to establish communications with a advocate; and

remove advocates who are no longer present or who fail to establish communications from the list of available advocates.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein replacing unavailable advocates in said group of advocates when required comprises

receiving, from a remote host, a request corresponding to a consumer-initiated command;

determining if a consumer-initiated command is a replace command; and

,

in response to a consumer-initiated replace command,

determining one or more attributes of a advocate to be replaced; and

determining a replacement advocate with similar attributes.

13. An apparatus comprising a memory, a processor, and one or more input/output interfaces, said memory containing s sequence of processor instructions, and said sequence of processor instructions operable to cause the processor to:

receiving a request to identify a group of advocates,

wherein said request includes one or more attributes of a consumer, a consumption target, and the consumption target context;

accessing a data store of advocates;

forming a subset of advocates in the data store of advocates related to the consumer, the consumption target, and the marketing context;

facilitating interaction with said subset of advocates in response to the request.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein facilitating interaction with said subset of advocates in response to the request further comprises providing said subset of advocates further instrumented such that one consumer action will open a communication between the user and one of the advocates in the subset.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein forming a subset of advocates in the data store of advocates related to the consumer, the consumption target, and the consumption target context further comprises:

determining, for each advocate, a measure of social connection to the consumer,

determining, for each advocate, a measure of expected marketing benefit relative to the consumption target,

combining, for each advocate, the measures of social connection and expected marketing benefit into a social marketing benefit score,

sorting the social marketing benefit scores to identify the highest scoring advocates, and

grouping the highest scoring advocates to form said subset.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the accessing a datastore of advocates further comprises transmitting a request to a host system for identification of available advocates.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the combining of the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score comprises multiplying the measure of marketing value by the measure of social connection.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the consumption target is further determined as one or more of a screen display theme, one or more consistently promoted media objects on the screen display, or one or more dynamically promoted media objects on the screen display.

19. An apparatus comprising a memory, a processor, and one or more input/output interfaces, said memory containing s sequence of processor instructions, and said sequence of processor instructions operable to cause the processor to:

receive a request to identify a group of advocates related to a consumption target, a consumer, and a marketing context;

access a data store of advocates;

form a subset of best advocates in the data store of available advocates;

provide identification of said subset of advocates;

monitor and facilitate communications with advocates in said subset of advocates;

replace unavailable advocates in said subset of advocates when required; and

account for commercial activity in relation to the group of advocates.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the formation of a subset of best advocates further comprises:

accessing a datastore of advocates;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of social connection to the consumer;

combining, for each available advocate, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;

sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and

identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advocates as the subset of best advocates.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein to monitor and facilitate a communication comprises instructions operative to initiate a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, a streaming audio/video conference, or an e-mail and to log a record of each initiated communication session.

22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein replacement of unavailable advocates in said group of advocates when required further comprises

periodically servicing a request from a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advocates;

identifying one or more unavailable advocates in the set of current advocates;

determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advocates; and

determining a replacement advocate for each unavailable advocate with similar attributes.

23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein identification of a group of advocates further comprises maintaining a presence server system operative to:

monitor a log-in process to detect the online presence of a advocate;

add advocates whose online presence is detected to a list of available advocates;

monitor activity of the available advocates to detect a log-out of a advocate or a failure to establish communications with a advocate; and

remove advocates who are no longer present or who fail to establish communications from the list of available advocates.

24. A computer readable medium, said medium containing a sequence of processor instructions, said instructions operative to cause the processor to:

access a content object to be perceived by a consumer;

determine a consumption target related to the content object;

identify a group of advocates related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception device;

associate each advocate in said group of advocates with a perceivable image;

convey one or more of the perceivable images to the consumer in proximity to the content object;

respond to a consumer action to select one of the perceivable images by initiating a communication with the associated advocate in said group of advocates; and

replace unavailable advocates in said group of advocates when required.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the identification of a group of advocates related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context further comprises:

accessing a datastore of advocates;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;

determining, for each available advocate, a measure of social connection to the consumer;

combining, for each available advocate, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;

sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and

identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advocates as the group of advocates.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the initiation of a communication comprises initiating a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, a streaming audio/video conference, or an e-mail.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein replacing unavailable advocates in said group of advocates when required further comprises

periodically polling a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advocates;

identifying one or more unavailable advocates in the set of current advocates;

determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advocates; and

polling a remote host to determine a replacement advocate for each unavailable advocate with similar attributes.